pellet stoves and pianos...can they coexist?

[lightyear]

I have a harman xxv that effectively hearts our 2200-2500 sq ft house. My wife has been taking piano lessons for 2 years. Right now we have a good electric keyboard (full key). I would like to surprise her someday with a real piano. Can I put one in the same room (large room with dining room and family room combined)? Or will it dry it out and effect the tone, tuning.?

 

[heat seeker]

Hot dry air will destroy a piano. It will dry out the sounding board, which is the heart of the piano. Pianos should be protected from changes in temperature and humidity as much as practical, and such changes should occur slowly.
A piano should also not be on an outside wall, as the temperature gradient across the piano is harmful.

Real pianos are fairly delicate, but do take a surprising amount of abuse.
My grand piano is in the next room from the stove, and it gets mostly return air from the upstairs, which is pretty cool and a steady temperature.

You can keep the air somewhat more moist with a humidifier, but run the risk of humidity swings, which is also damaging to a piano.

That said, my piano seems to be faring well, although it doesn't hold tuning as well as it did before the stove arrived.

I love my piano, but if I had it to do over, I would get a top of the line electronic one. The touch is very realistic, and the sound is excellent, and there's no tuning or maintenance. You can also use MIDI, and use a sequencer to record and play back songs, which can be a great teaching aid.

 

[WarmBluthner]

I'll keep you posted, my 100 year old bluthner grand ( recently restored) shares the room with an Oslo, its 15 feet from the stove.

Since a year I monitor humidity. Since the stove arrived there is no change in humidity compared to using the central heating. Up until now I've only burned wood. The piano is not detuning.

The temperature swings are larger but, since the piano weighs 600 pounds , I guess it takes time to really warm it up.

In summer, without stoves, there can also be large swings from day to night.

So I try to watch humidity and will see what winter brings us.

 

[Madcodger]

And an OAK will help, as well. One of the chief contributors to dry air and humidity swings with heating equipment is the rapid exchange of air that occurs when indoor air (warmer, moister, generally good for a piano if not excessive) is used for combustion and is by necessity replaced with outdoor air (colder, dryer). We can heat that air easily (although not efficiently) but it is very difficult to replace the moisture. A gas furnace does exactly the same thing. Even heat pumps in a poorly air sealed home have a problem with this constant, high rate of air exchange, albeit less than with combustion appliances (which actually pump the air out).

Stoves get blamed for dry air because we are all familiar with this process from years (millenia, actually) of having combustion in homes. But it is more the WAY air is provided than the presence of a stove that causes the problem. An OAK and good air sealing (controlled exchange) will make for a happy piano (and wife)!

 

[moey]

How dry is your house now? I think that will answer your question.

 

[lightyear]

We do have the Oak set up. The stove makes the downstairs more dry than our heat pump, but I Di try and run a humidifier with it, although it is undersized.
Thanks for the thoughts, maybe I'll either change the rooms or just upgrade her keyboard when the time comes.

And an OAK will help, as well. One of the chief contributors to dry air and humidity swings with heating equipment is the rapid exchange of air that occurs when indoor air (warmer, moister, generally good for a piano if not excessive) is used for combustion and is by necessity replaced with outdoor air (colder, dryer). We can heat that air easily (although not efficiently) but it is very difficult to replace the moisture. A gas furnace does exactly the same thing. Even heat pumps in a poorly air sealed home have a problem with this constant, high rate of air exchange, albeit less than with combustion appliances (which actually pump the air out).

Stoves get blamed for dry air because we are all familiar with this process from years (millenia, actually) of having combustion in homes. But it is more the WAY air is provided than the presence of a stove that causes the problem. An OAK and good air sealing (controlled exchange) will make for a happy piano (and wife)!

 

[tjnamtiw]

Isn't the harp steel? I can see worrying about the sounding board cracking or warping but it wouldn't go out of tune because of humidity, would it? I'm NOT a piano expert (have a Yamaha Clavinova) but was just wondering. I can see worrying about low humidity though it wouldn't be any worse than any other form of heat IMHO.

 

[heat seeker]

Yes, the harp is metal, but the tuning block is made of wood. My Yamaha's tuning block is made of layers of wood with layers of sealer between each layer. As the tuning block swells and shrinks (ideally not at all) the tuning pins can move. There is, IIRC, something like 200 tons of tension on a grand piano's harp. I'm not sure how the tuning block attaches to the harp, but that may be an area for movement, too.

I have had a hard time finding a tuner around here who knows how to get it right. Years ago I had a tuner that could make the piano sound wonderful. He moved on, and no one since has been able to do more than get it to sound decent.

 

[tjnamtiw]

Yes, the harp is metal, but the tuning block is made of wood. My Yamaha's tuning block is made of layers of wood with layers of sealer between each layer. As the tuning block swells and shrinks (ideally not at all) the tuning pins can move. There is, IIRC, something like 200 tons of tension on a grand piano's harp. I'm not sure how the tuning block attaches to the harp, but that may be an area for movement, too.

I have had a hard time finding a tuner around here who knows how to get it right. Years ago I had a tuner that could make the piano sound wonderful. He moved on, and no one since has been able to do more than get it to sound decent.

Wow, that's amazing. I guess no one appreciates 'old world' precision anymore when they can buy an electronic one. I can see how shrinkage/swelling could throw off the tuning now. I'll stick to throwing 'mud' on my potter's wheel and making deer calls, thank you very much!

 

[heat seeker]

I hear you. My piano has something like 12,000 individual parts in it. No wonder they're so expensive. I was lucky and got mine wholesale, years ago, from a friend in the business. No way could I afford one now! The new electronic ones are indeed amazing, and I would be sorely tempted to take that route if I were in the market. Our church has a Yamaha, and it sounds just fine and needs no maintenance. It has the weighted keys, so feels very much like the real thing, too. Some communion grape juice got spilled in it a few weeks ago. I'm here to tell you that grape juice makes an excellent adhesive when it dries. Some of the keys were solidly glued together! I had to take it apart to clean things up, which involved removing the affected keys and literally washing them with soap and water. That gave me a chance to see the weighting mechanism, which I thought to be very cleverly designed. With freshly washed keys, it's playing like nothing ever happened. (And yes, the communion juice will not be placed on the piano again!)

 

[tjnamtiw]

about 50 years ago, I inherited an old player piano and a storeroom full of rolls. The piano didn't work so I, being the 'let's see how this works' type, proceeded to do a lobotomy on it. Parts everywhere. I completely rebuilt all the tubing and bellows, felts, and who knows what else. Believe it or not, I put it all back together and it worked like a champ! Beautiful woodwork and incredible ingenuity.

 

[heat seeker]

I've always wanted a player piano, but never got around to getting one. Some of my friends have restored them, and I get my "fix" by listening to theirs.

There is someone near me who has restored a band organ that runs off folded cards running through a player mechanism. That is a real treat to see and hear in operation. It, however, has nothing to do with pianos or pellet stoves…sorry!

 

[pelletizer]

I have a harman xxv that effectively hearts our 2200-2500 sq ft house. My wife has been taking piano lessons for 2 years. Right now we have a good electric keyboard (full key). I would like to surprise her someday with a real piano. Can I put one in the same room (large room with dining room and family room combined)? Or will it dry it out and effect the tone, tuning.?

Back in the day of wood-stoves and fireplaces before baseboard heat I believe there were piano's.
I have a piano about 10 feet from my pellet stove (the air does not blow directly on it) and have no issues.
We use a humidifier as well in that room.
Heat seeker is correct that the piano should be on an inside wall.....
Ours is not but currently there is no alternative.
I love the sound of a real piano and its fun at Christmas time for christmas tunes...